The draggers

Given next Thursday’s slugfest in Ontario, plus BC’s latest witch hunt, this blog post was supposed to tell you why landlords are about to be broiled on a spit. But, alas, events have overtaken things. Let’s save the weenie roast for tomorrow.

So, how do you like the Trumpster now?

The American president on Thursday went all bully and slapped big tariffs on metals from Canada, Mexico and Europe. In immediate reaction these allies retaliated. Now we have a trade war. Good work, Don.

Stock markets in the US fell because this makes imports more expensive, hurts companies and costs jobs. The Canadian dollar swooned on the news and never recovered. Bonds went up and investors despaired just a day after the Italian thing toppled equities.

Incredibly, Trump’s White House says erecting trade barriers to its North American allies (to block stuff the US also produces) is a ‘national security’ issue. It’s not, of course. This is designed to blow up NAFTA – which now has a zero chance of being ratified in 2018 – and plays to the alt right Republican base of knuckle-draggers who think protectionism will bring back 1966. That’s not going to happen, either. Just ask Harley, an iconic American manufacturer that this week punted thousands of workers – in part because of the rising price of imported materials.

Protectionism flows from nationalism and jingoism. From there it’s a short trip to intolerance and the sentiment that makes Trump defenders want to build a Mexican wall, ban Muslim immigrants and leave post-hurricane Puerto Rico in desperate shape. Most of all, it’s bad economics. Trade barriers make things more expensive to produce and buy. Consumers have less buying power so when 70% of the US economy is based on consumer spending, this is some dumb. Meanwhile there’s no evidence taxing Ontario steel or Quebec aluminum will create a single job in Michigan or Ohio. But Trump says otherwise. And the rabble cheers. So Canadian ‘retaliation’ is pointless. The president cares not.

Ottawa’s response is not strategic, unlike that of Mexico. Those guys targeted products in US electoral districts where Republicans have a fight on their hands this November. We didn’t. We also blew the NAFTA talks by making gender equality our big demand. You can imagine how that went over.

Meanwhile, consider the growing divide between the nations. We’ve raised taxes and created a new super tax bracket for the wealthiest (who, by US standards, aren’t rich at all). The US dropped personal tax rates. We raised taxes on corporations. They reduced them. We just nationalized a pipeline company. The US reduced regs covering the oil and gas business. We’re adding a carbon tax to everything. They punted the Paris Accord. Household debt in Canada is going up, while in the US it’s been falling. Soon we may have two-thirds of our economy controlled by socialist governments. Their governing party eats nails.

So, what next?

This will not deter the Bank of Canada from raising rates. In fact, it makes that event more likely since the dollar will now be under continual pressure and needs the juice. Second, tariffs, barriers and numbnuts foreign leaders are inflationary – these things increase the cost of goods and services and reduce productivity. Central bankers hate that.

Second, NAFTA is kaput. Now. Maybe forever – until populism and protectionist drain away in Washington. Bad news for Hamilton and the Sault, along with Sept-Iles, and the real estate markets surrounding them as steel and aluminum are hit. In the Trump crosshairs also is vehicle production with another 25% proposed tariff.. Yup, Oshawa and Windsor. Brampton, Barrie and Woodstock. Bye-bye.

Those people who come here to praise the American leader as a visionary, iconoclast and an everyman propelled by common sense and courage are backing a myopic bully. No wonder he likes Putin and Kim, hates a free and inquisitive media and can’t keep employees. The danger he now poses to global growth – just recently struggling back from its knees – is palpable. Ironically, he’s not helping America either by whacking Canada.

The CAD$ was chronically stronger, not weaker, prior to NAFTA. NAFTA in fact ushered in one of the most profound periods of weakness for the CAD$.

If the US gets into trade wars with the rest of the world, that just means more goods are available to be dumped into Canada “on the cheap”. For example, I was reading today that Trump is proposing high tariffs on German luxury cars. Mercedes isn’t exactly going to stop producing luxury cars, so they’ll be increasingly offered to global customers, including Canadians, at reduced prices.

Canada currently exports a lot of its productive surplus to the United States. Retaining that production in Canada means deflation, and lower prices for Canadians. Reduced inflation. Reduced interest rates.

As far as “socialism” is concerned, the US is heavily a socialist, if not communist country at this point. Government bureaucrats micro-manage practically everything within a system that has an enormous amount of regulatory bureaucracy. Paying themselves enormous salaries to boot including pensions. The Canadian system, although not perfect, is far more free-market oriented in comparison.

Of course, protectionism will raise prices for US consumers because the US economy consumes more than it produces. Inflation in the US, as a result of insufficient production to meet demand. Deflation in Canada, the result of excess production relative to demand. Deflation is, by definition, a strengthening of the currency. Inflation is, by definition, a weakening of the currency. The CAD$/USD$ pair will eventually reflect such.

Trade is a national security issue. For example, if all trade between the US and Russia stopped then the US would have no means of getting to space, as specific components used for all space flight in the US are sourced only from Russia. If things go further south in their mutual relations, Russia could decide that the US loses their space flight capability.

” Post a link to the source of the 40% don’t pay even interest. Or even show me a HELOC from an obscure lender that requires absolutely no payments for years. Maybe that exists, but there is no possible way it is 40%. Some things are obvious. I think this is one of them.”

I think what Garth et al are trying to imply here is that it is common, and perfectly acceptable for borrowers to merely take out a HELOC, and, without restriction, walk up to a bank ABM every month, withdraw a few hundred dollars in cash from said HELOC (usually linked to a bank card), and then immediately, even in the same transaction, use that cash in payment of the interest component of the HELOC.

So technically as long as such is a possible (if not an encouraged) behavior, there is no requirement to even pay interest on a HELOC.

Now, behind the scenes, the bank itself might be interested in the people who are engaging in this behavior. To judge their credit risk, to determine how dependent they are on such behavior. The newest bank machines, at least at TD, track the serial numbers of every bill presented for deposit. As well as every bill withdrawn. Certainly there’s some credit quant at a bank like TD who is using this data, the serial numbers of bills deposited to pay HELOC accounts, to develop algorithms to detect emerging signs of distress in such accounts.

As far as Garth’s claims, and asking for a link, its obvious that he talks to people in the industry routinely. There shouldn’t be any reason to doubt his credibility on the topic.

1. Canadians in debt already won’t be able to afford German luxury cars.

2. Canada produces for export to US, if that door is shut there will be no production for internal consumption as we already over consume (credit driven).

Canada has no productive surplus. It produces utilizing cheaper labour in order to export to US. Period.
This is why lonie is weaker than the USD. We are just one giant cheap labour camp and a resource colony for US.

3. People want to export to US as it is the biggest and wealthiest market and the USD is the world reserve currency.

Canada is none of this. We were a proxy to the US market, but evidently not anymore.

4. Only an absolute idiot (my apology for some of the idiots out there) can claim that US is socialist or communist country.

Are you crazy?

Have you seen actual socialism?
Socialism and communism reject private ownership of productive assets.

Canada loonies, the likes of NDP are the closest to socialism out there.

Garth I’m disappointed that you think somehow Trump is to blame entirely for a trade war. His actions are no different than those of his predecessor during times like these. Rising interest rates, decreased global economic activity, an increased cycle of civil unrest are all the hallmarks of protectionism.

The world moves in cycles. The actions of politicians are always the same – to save themselves and look out for their best interests, whatever that may be.

Unfortunately, as tides turn, the globe gets cooler, Europe has a burgeoning ‘refugee’ crisis along with an EU on its last legs due to potential default and credit rating risk and the West is now bearing the fruits of multi generational socialism.

Are all going to be bad for the next 6-12 months for equities. At the very least, the water will be choppy. The only positive I can really think of is the US still has the tech juggernauts pulling up the market with 20% annual growth each year.

Trump wants his cars, well he can keep them. Canada should eliminate the 6% tariff on European cars effective immediately. Get Citroen, Renault, and all of them in here ASAP. Vehicles is the number 1 import from the US,with machinery and electrical machinery next. We should be able to boycott them and source elsewhere.

Boeing should be shunned and Airbus purchased instead, hell its a better aircraft. We should shut them out of military procurements and tell them to take their scam of an F35 program and beat it!

I was chatting w/ my first grader’s teacher today. She told me a funny story…the students were asked what kind of things they wonder about. The teacher was expecting run of the mill questions like, ‘why is the sky blue?’ But one precocious girl asked, ‘I wonder why Donald Trump is president of the whole world when he does so many bad things?’

There is so much dead wood in our economic forest it needs to be burned down, and Trump is the fire.

Maybe Canada will get its sh*t together and elect someone that will do whats in OUR best interest, rather than send foreign aid to rich people in poor countries and make promises that CAN NEVER be fulfilled. Canada sent $3.9B USD in foreign aid in 2016..and Trump is the idiot?

Say what you want about the wall..but the numbers don’t lie. LEGAL IMMIGRANTS of latin decent use welfare at 3X the rate of natives in the US. Thats a massive burden on tax payers. Thats just the legal ones.

How can it be true that an illegal immigrant can simultaneously;
– undercut the labor price
– live in the USA
– send money back home (remittances to mexico from the $USA 25.7B in 2015)

The only way that works is if they are not paying taxes, making cash, and using the various welfare programs to pay for the difference. Its theft and cheating the system, kudos to President Trump for having the stones to say it and do something about it.

They elected an incredibly successful businessman, We elected a part time drama teacher, the results are about as expected.

Trudeau has a decade of government experience. The drama teacher thing is lame. – Garth

#180 The T2 Gang Blew It on 05.31.18 at 3:54 pm
Freeland recently announced what tariffs would be imposed against the USA. She must be joking or confused by it all. On the other hand, Mexico targeted wisely, tariffs against the congressional districts fighting to retain themselves in the November elections. This clearly shows our Liberal Party as amateurs, compared to the Mexican statesmanship.
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Not that I like T2 but it is probably wise to refrain from blatantly targeting areas politically if we don’t want the USA to do the same to us during elections.

Nothing will anger the unstable regime more than targeting their base.

Trump expects us to see him as some kind of victim? good luck with that

Mr. Brooks …what does lying and cheating your customers have to do with socialism or the government?

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Inside Black Cube and its work to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal
Company documents and sources detail how the Israeli private security firm spied on former Obama administration officials in an effort to undermine the Iran nuclear deal.. Duration: 11:22

NAFTA is far from dead. It guarantees the US preferred access to our energy resources. If that isn’t imperative to America’s “security” than I don’t know what is.
Behind closed door the Canadian negotiators must be reminding the Trumpites of this very fact.

NAFTA will easily survive Trump. His own party and Congress will eat him alive if his administration seriously entertains abrogation. Of course, that’s if the Big Orange hasn’t completely trashed his own economy.

Trump is a walking talking disaster and his governance is a reflection of his profound economic ignorance increasingly questionable mental health.

No wonder North Korea went all mushy, Kim Jong-un’s mirror image is currently POTUS and they both share ludicrous hair and alarming style of sociopathic governance. Nothing scares a sociopath head of state more than another sociopath head of state. You just cannot predict what they will do next!

“This is designed to blow up NAFTA – which now has a zero chance of being ratified in 2018 – and plays to the alt right Republican base of knuckle-draggers who think protectionism will bring back 1966.”

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The only thing that will bring back the golden years of the middle class is paying employees more. All the jobs in the world won’t make a lick of difference if they pay $10 an hour with no pension.

And anyone who thinks that corporations would pass on to consumers any savings from cost reduction in materials due to protectionism (even if it did work that way), or any other reason for that matter, is a naive fool.

“Knuckle-draggers”, love it! Agreed with a previous poster who said that targeted tariffs to products in certain electoral districts would probably be an unwise escalation for us. Other countries (maybe not Mexico, but the EU) are in safer positions to do that than we are.

I’m a Canadian currently doing some work in the US – Hillbillyville Oklahoma. This topic came up today what “The Donald” just signed. And the local folks are on board. I wonder what they’ll think when TP starts costing them $2 /roll. lol Kidding aside…if this really blows up..life goes on…what this will do is take years and years or maybe a decade to sort out. Life is a game. Weeeee

The American economy, until now, has been one of the most open and trade friendly in the world.

Europe, Brazil, India, China, Japan and yes, Canada, are far more protectionist than the Americans have been.

So when Trump decides that they have had enough with being the only trading partner without massive tarrifs, and decides to protect domestic worker jobs from dumping from China, state owned companies in China Russia (and now Canada with our new state owned pipeline company) and huge tarrifs on imported US goods (as in Europe, China, Japan) he becomes the bully?

A whole slew of ex-pat canucks who now live in the Formerly United States (FU’S) are prepping to move back home. The coming influx might make the bumpy road in the real estate market crash a little less bumpy. So you see, a Trump has Canada’s best interests at heart. But not so much for America ‘s best interests.
Strange times indeed.

Solution
-BoC should hold off raising rate
-This will help sink the Cdn Dollar
Let the CDN$ fall down and the end result is US tariffs are muted. The reason I say this is if our dollar declines a further 25% to the US then more US dollars will pour in to buy our discounted currency goods. This should slap the US back for a trade war.
I also realize our lower dollar would make our imports more expensive, but this is just another way to get the Canadian consumer to slow their buying and credit binge. If they can’t afford higher produce and wine or anything else from the US thats fine.
They can slow credit with higher retail goods and have them cut their spending, rather than punishing existing mortgage holders and current debt holders. Higher costs could slow down the insanity. Not to mention that higher interest rates also hurt the government as their borrowing costs rise to extreme levels to just service their existing debt.
I saw this happen in the early 90’s when our dollar sank. US companies were setting up bushiness in Canada such as call centers and anything else they can that is feasable. Movie companies had more film production here as well due to currency advantage. Currency can do a lot of things that some governments don’t have a grasp of, and capital will always seek out its greatest return.
P.S. Whats to stop Amazon from setting up a huge warehouse in Canada and shipping from here to the US. Makes sense when Seattle wants to tax every employee of Amazon $275 for just being there. Goods from China can quite easily be shipped to the Port of Vancouver for distribution by Amazon.
Just my 2 cents worth and we’ll see how this all plays out.

Trump’s Presidency is proof that all globalist trade conspiracy theories are BUNK.

If they weren’t, surely the Globalist conspirators (and their lackies on Wall street) would have ensured that Trump would have had an ‘accidents’ by now, rather than put up with all his capricious fits and the uncertainty that they generate in global markets.

And yet he’s oblivious to the mounting pressure of the world closing around him. This guy has the biggest ego I’ve seen since Zaphod Beeblebrox, emerged from the Total Perspective Vortex. He’s also a Beeblebroxian contender for most shameless abuse of a Presidency as well.

Oh well, I guess that we’d better hope that the recently purchased ‘CanDer Morgan’ pipeline Co. places it’s order for steel pipe while Canadian steel is on sale. Buy Canadian!

Canada couldn’t target their retaliatory tariffs as strategically as Mexico, China or the EU because Canada took the approach of making nice with every state-level politician they could to help salvage NAFTA.

Given Trump’s habit of flip-flopping on issues like a gaffed halibut, Canada doesn’t want to cancel all that goodwill by targeting specific regions or politicians with retaliatory tariffs during an election campaign. Someday this trade war’s going to end, and everybody will have to get along again.

As for the gender parity thing, I always saw that as one of those negotiation tactics where you stake out an extreme position, even if it has little value, defend it like crazy, throughout the negotiationsnegotiations, then cave at the 11th hour to break a deadlock, and allow the other side to claim a magnificent Victory.

Like in Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal.

I figured they the Canadians would hoodwink the US with that, and while the US team were celebrating their victory for Normish rights, the Canadians would subtly use the moment to point out that Trump obviously had not read his own book.

Trudeau has a decade of government experience. The drama teacher thing is lame. – Garth

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Really Garth? The crown prince of Papineau had no real world or business experience prior to getting elected… which happened only because of his last name and has contributed precious little since he “arrival”. He is a joke and an embarrassment to Canada and one can only hope he suffers the same fate as Notley will one year from now. Our future depends on it.

While I agree he has taken us in a misguided direction, it is intellectually dishonest to call him a drama teacher and ignore ten years of experience. I am sure you learned much in the last decade. Demean the policies, not the man. – Garth

You are absolutely correct. I am personally a benefactor of this situation and I live in Canada. Most of my retirement balanced portfolio is exactly because the USA is OPEN. Read that again please.
Canada on the other hand is NOT. I can sell items costing $800 USD to a customer in the states and he receives it without paying ANY taxes at all. No duties no customs etc. Now if I operated in the USA and sold to someone in Canada, can we expect the same? Not a chance!
Trump complained about this in March and no one in the press picked up on this. I did because I’m deep in it.
The start of this is the steel industry and China has been the primary bad actor in this. Fingers should be pointed at them.
BTW, I can purchase items from China and I can get it for less than the HST that I would have to pay if I bought i here. Furthermore, shipping costs to small vendors are already subsidized by the Chinese government and there should be attention paid on that front as well but who is watching what is going on? No one. China is sneaky.
I am afraid the press including Garth doesn’t get the security aspect. For the same reason they went after China for IP. China 2025 is very ambitious and they the chinese government will do anything to achieve their goal including IP theft if required. Someone needs to take a stand and say cut it out.
The security is not that we as Canadians pose a threat. If the steel industry in the USA is not kept alive in some limited fashion, who will the USA military use to develop new steels? Mexico? EU? The action and dumping of steel is killing off the ability of OUR most important protector to protect us. Let us be clear. We need the USA for protection and security.
The first lesson I was taught in systems engineering is that sometimes you need to have suboptimal subsystems to reach an truly optimal system. This is something amateurs don’t understand. Sometimes we need to cut the USA some slack so that they can accomplish what WE also need and that is security. I am sorry but if a missile is headed Canada’s way, I am sure the USA will try and take it out. We need to understand that relationship.
So many kids on this forum don’t understand the reality of the world we live in.
I don’t like what he does but somebody has to stir the pot sometimes. You will not be liked but it sometimes has to be done and you will be seen as mean and evil.

The strategy of China always has been to destroy key industries of the enemy because at that point they are powerless. Can you imagine what would have happened to the UK in WWII if all their steel initially came from France? Steel is not as vital today as then but advanced steels are very very important today.

Read the financial post, if you most have it written out for you! Not everyone is leftist, globalist, open borders, then pretends to be a free trader. But remember, you’re the one throwing stones. Many, many people understand. If you can’t position your portfolio for this, shame on you.

I’m reminded of 2008 when I sold one of the 2 cars my kids shared. I took away their credit cards and gave them a fixed amount for an allowance.
I went from a great Dad who could do no wrong to a selfish, self centered lousy Dad overnight.
It all worked out and Dad is once again a great Dad.
What brings that to mind?
A lot of countries has been sucking the wealth out of the states for years due to our weak leadership. We had politicians that cared about their party’s goals and their own next election more then they did our country. Now that we have to tighten our belt and take care of the destroyed middle class everybody wants to whine about how bad we are. Just like my kids.
I agree Trump is not a good politician. I agree he is downright crude at times. He is doing the job we elected him to do though. I just hope it isn’t to late for America.

Most Americans did not vote for Trump. A fact worth remembering. – Garth

Nationwide, Reuters reports, 14 of the 40 most competitive seats are in districts where voters will not have access to paper ballots. These races will take place in states that include Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Kansas, and Kentucky.

Sure am glad I closed on a surplus house in the Sault yesterday. Money’s in the bank awaiting deployment. Or hubby’s layoff.

I’d like to thank you Garth, as reading this blog led me to ensure we have enough invested to weather the storm. It may not be overly diversified or balanced, but there’s several years of living expenses.

Why should we have any confidence in a Prime Minister stupid enough to buy a pipeline and put taxpayers on the hook for an asset that no one in the private sector wants to buy and is fraught with legal challenges, regulatory issues and environmental risks? This guy is dumber than a rock.

I knew Gravy Train and James would not show up..
Your wife could have been a hero. Got four lose teeth , she just had to plant a hard welcome home kiss on the lips and she would have knocked four of them out.. Something my rivals when I played jr hockey could only dream about.

Porn to the rescue again. Now if only we could find some dirt on Turdeau besides his selfies and Bollywood dancing. Trump may be a bully but the folks we’ve elected are a bunch of buffoons. It is impossible to see how if they can’t resolve the Trans Mountain thing among themselves they can renegotiate NAFTA. Not going to happen. Not by this government.

Trump, as disgraceful as he is, doesn’t run the US any more so than a CEO runs a company. Sure, you have powerful CEO’s like Steve Jobs that bring some major energy to the company, but it’s the engineers who design the iPhone and get it to work, and the marketers who sell the things for $1000 a pop. The government works the same way. The anti-trade sentiment in the US runs far deeper than Trump. I know, I’ve crossed into the US on a TN Visa recently. It was much harder to answer all the questions from the guy at security than it was to get the visa in the first place. Sentiment has turned. They don’t want us there anymore. And PS that TN Visa is part of NAFTA so when NAFTA goes I assume that all TN Visas will be revoked. If that happens you’ll probably have to get an H1-B to work in the US.

So anyway, I’ve decided to retire, at least for now. The scariness of the TN Visa situation being a small part of it. The changes to the small corporation treatment being larger. My tax rate has effectively doubled and I don’t need the money that bad and I have a motorcycle.

So what I used to do with my corporation is retain most earnings and then pay myself out what I need to live on in a given year. So when I was really busy and rolling in the dough I would retain some of the earning to be paid out in years where I wasn’t very busy. I think this was absolutely fair because my average taxes over time were commensurate with my actually average take home pay over time. Now, because of the changes to how much you can retain, I have to pay taxes on the amount my corporation earns in the year it is earned, moving my tax rate much higher in busy years, and I can’t carry much forward to years I earn less or nothing. This means the years I accept a big gig I get taxed to death and the years I don’t have work I have nothing left to live on. May as well retire. See if you get more tax revenue from that, Moroneau!

Canada imposing 16.6 billion in counter tariffs does not seem like a swing and a miss to me.

Compare and contrast to Mexico’s response and it seems to me a well thought out and coordinated response between the two.

World leadership rankings now see the US plummeting…its Germany in first spot followed by China and third place is…Russia. At 27%. I didn’t bother going further down the list to find the US but they are dropping in the world citizenry’s view.

Almost everything Trump has done benefits the Russians in some manner…China has simply stopped buying soy from the US for instance and swung those billions over to Russia.

Putin is so confident his long con has worked that he even has pulled Melania from the case, while re-watching his personal copy of the Pee Tape.

But there was no collusion and Trump is a genius. He bankrupted himself with casinos, booze, water and steaks. Oh, and real estate once or twice. He now is heavily leveraged in golf courses…the tenth most popular sport world wide, behind table tennis and badminton!

Genius.

I fought the law and the law won was not just a popular song, especially when you have lawyers of the caliber that Trump has. Rumor has it that GOP internal polling shows them without enough votes to defeat impeachment.

I’ll gladly do without my winter cauliflower and buy green beans from Nigeria if it hastens the correction needed down south.

“. Even mainstream economists now acknowledge that banks do not lend their deposits but actually create deposits when they make loans. The bank borrows as needed to cover withdrawals, but not all funds are withdrawn at once; and a government bank can borrow its own deposits much more cheaply than local governments can borrow on the bond market. Through their own public banks, government entities can thus effectively borrow at bankers’ rates plus operating costs, cutting out middlemen. And unlike borrowing through bonds, which merely recirculate existing funds, borrowing from banks creates new money, which will stimulate economic growth and come back to the state in the form of new taxes and pension premiums. A working paper published by the San Francisco Federal Reserve in 2012 found that one dollar invested in infrastructure generates at least two dollars in GSP (state GDP), and roughly four times more than average during economic downturns.”

I guess you’ve been asleep for, oh, the past 20-30 years with the absolutely massive expansion of the regulatory, “social services” and ‘entitlement’ apparatus in the US. With a corresponding increase in the amount of government debt, an involuntary obligation upon the public, incurred to support it.

The true private sector in the US is shrinking all the time. Being crowded out by the public sector, the public sector’s borrowing, regulations imposed by the public sector, and the legislative empowerment of what essentially amounts to mini dictatorships in the education, defense, and financial sectors. That smells suspiciously like rampant communism/socialism to me, but whatever floats your boat I guess.

I knew Gravy Train and James would not show up..
Your wife could have been a hero. Got four lose teeth , she just had to plant a hard welcome home kiss on the lips and she would have knocked four of them out.. Something my rivals when I played jr hockey could only dream about.

Chuck it down to missed oppertunity.

We had a good turn out…
……………………….

Yah, it was an awesome turn out…you looked really good in that canvas sport coat. I am wondering why it didn’t have any sleeves but the buckles on the back were a nice touch. Was it expensive ?

“Kinder Morgan only paid $550 million for the Trans Mountain pipeline back in 2007. Trudeau has decided to fork over $C3.4 billion for a system that is a now a decade older with no plan on how to get the expansion constructed”

Landlords are the good guys. Recently had a Yahoo move into one of my buildings. Rented him my basement bachelor suite.

A month later he says he is going away for the summer will be back in the fall. Can he hold the unit if he pays the rent each month? I say sure. I don’t care if he’s there not. Empty units that pay rent are fine by me.

So a month goes by. This dude I have never met comes up to me when I am over doing building maintenance. Says he lives in the basement bachelor suite. I say no, you don’t. The guy who lives there is gone for the summer.

So he shows me a lease. That [email protected] rented my unit on kijiji for $100 more than he is paying me, posing as the building owner and moved this new guy in. A month later he jacked the new guy’s rent by $100. The guy is complaining that the rent increase is illegal.

So I had a chat with my absentee tenant. Gives me this song and dance about how he only rented the furniture in the unit and the guy was otherwise staying there for free. I told him I called the police and he should expect a visit. He came the next day and removed all his stuff. Haven’t seen him since.

I rented the unit to the other guy, for $200 less than my ass&ole former tenant was charging him, and that was that.

You dropped tonight more rhetoric than usual, never explained though why 1966 was better both in the US and in Canada, without NAFTA, free trade and the rest.

Your whole globalism glorification exercise fails on people’s own experience, that life is not getting better – just the opposite.

Unprecedented level of debt for individuals, governments, record number of people would go under by missing a couple of paycheck.

On top of that, North America has been poisoned with soul-crashing government and political party generated identity politics that used to be reserved to the worst totalitarian regimes, with the sole purpose of maintaining political power.

I understand, you are doing well – and it is your great personal achievement – but this somehow seems to blind you to recognize that the great slogans of globalism never really materialized for a large and continuously increasing segment of the North American population.

Walls will make life worse for those feeling most disadvantaged now. How is that not obvious? – Garth

There really is a sane world outside of Toronto! A neighbour has his house up for sale in my hood. It is rather unique in that it is modernized and updated as opposed to most houses here that haven’t been updated since built. So it makes an ideal downsized home for those boomers sitting on million dollar big-city real estate.

Let’s review this NAFTA Thingy. 1) we have the dairy market board protection racket. (big time Quebec votes) 2) we have aligned ourselves with Mexico on all NAFTA trading issues.
Canada needs to negotiate for Canada not include Mexico in our battle. If we have to negotiate NAFTA on our own then that is what we should do.

“Populism”………..that negative connotation used so deridingly by liberals, leftists, and communists (they’re all the same, but anyways) is merely the duly elected politicians following the will of the people who voted them into office.

What a concept.

I can see how this would terribly upset those on the left who only believe in total dictatorial control without any input from the masses.

That’s why the Americans have the second amendment boys and girls………and we have Prime Minister Justin Merkel.

The erosion of the middle class is inevitable. Manufactured goods will all be made in low cost labour nations. Trump was elected to slow down the pace of the obvious. American women voted for this guy hoping he would give their husbands an extra 10 years of employment at decent wages. Contrary to popular opinion American women enjoy spending their husbands money and the more they have the better.
Try landing an American woman when you have a lousy job. Good luck.
Donald cannot stop the train but he can slow it down.
As a Canadian you should have anticipated middle class trouble and eschewed debt.
The government brought in quantitative easing to stimulate demand. It was a suckers game as the people chased housing and the government then doubled the land transfer tax. People speculated and the CRA is chasing them down like dogs to steal wealth that was artificially created.
People who got caught in the last year on the wrong side of the housing trade will be left to die after the humiliation.
Just because the Jones’s buy a bigger house doesn’t mean you should. Just because they have kids and go heavily into debt doesn’t mean you should.
The Jones’s will eventually demand your money as well and Andrea will give it to them, but hopefully you can buy 10 years by being debt free before she steals the rest from you.

Trump has done alot for the usa, tax cuts, deregulation, low unemployment. However there is going to be a massive debtbomb from not cutting back the spending.
Does not care for Canada

What has Trudope done for Canada? tax increase, debt increase, attacking the small business community, giving money away in Foreign Aid, acting like a dramateacher in full costume in India. Does not care for Canada either.

I’ve been using Turdeau, Moroneau, and Nutely for some time. Occasionally “Environment Barbie” as well. I thought politicians were naturally exposed to some ridicule by nature of their positions? I mean it’s not the worst thing I’ve been called even by my wife.

Before Mulroney sold our heart and soul as per Stevie Cameron’s book, you could buy anything at all made in Canada, and cooler still it was made in factories owned by Canadian companies!

Then came his NAFTA which is on the obituary page tonight. We were promised American prices and Canadian wages. We got Canadian prices and American wages.

Being in my mid sixties, I have many durable big ticket goods manufactured in places like Guelph, Smith Falls, Drumondville, Windsor, that still function as new. I used to drink Molsons, LaBatts, Seagrams when they were 100% Canadian companies.

Heck I remember the only furniture available came from Quebec or Ontario. What I have.

There was a time if Zippo of Bradford Pa wanted to sell a cigarette lighter here it had to be assembled in the branch plant in Niagara Falls Ont., or else no way Jose.

It wasn’t bad. Stuff cost more then, but every one worked full time.

I hope I get another opportunity to buy a Canadian made car battery again before the last of my years beyond warrantee last of the Canadian ones stop holding charge.

‘Magin if every country in the world boycotted USA! We would starve to death trying. I was not around then, but I bet it was all Canadian content here during the world war efforts.

I just couldn’t resist not posting tonight. Garth you are so wrong with Trump and I know you really don’t get it! I always did and still do like Trump and most of what he is doing! Trump is correct in pointing out that Canada is “Spoiled”! We have a corrupt system of dairy, poultry, wheat & liquor etc… marketing and control boards that allows almost no competition from abroad. These systems keep all prices high and restricts imports of many consumer products all to the detriment of Canadians. Canada has many other problems on her plate that would be too numerous to list here tonight. But make no mistake this country is in serious trouble with our biggest trading partner and we need them MORE than they need us! Keep up the leftist identity ideology Canada and you’ll soon hear another sucking sound of millions up millions of jobs leaving for the mighty U.S. Canada………..YOU WILL LOSE THIS TRADE WAR WITH AMERICA, stop playing games with Trump! Trump will not care if Canada destroys itself. It’s sink or swim time Canada ………….. it’s time to get off the coattails of America and negotiate a fairer NAFTA agreement.

To make things better going forward Canada STOP VOTING LIBERAL, NDP OR NOT VOTING AT ALL! The seeds of Canada’s destruction and hollowing out are being planted right now!

You can insult Donald Trump all you want-but after seeing how the guy works to get results for their economy many Canadians would love to replace Trudeau or Wynne with someone even half as competent as Trump. The other point is that you fail to understand that Trump was not elected to fix the problems of Canada-Selfie was.

The Americans already tried this under Bush and it cost 200,000 jobs. Economists are predicting the same outcome. There are more jobs at risk in the final production of the raw materials than there are jobs to be created in the production of those raw materials. Also, as The Washington Post has put it, there are now more tariffs on us and Mexico than China. Trudeau may be spineless, but they would have tried to steamroll us either way. But yet, we still put 54 million in to the F-35 program the other day… sigh..

Our biggest import from US is vehicles, well one way to send a message would be to immediately end the 6% tariff on European cars instead of the gradual elimination under CETA. Start bringing in the likes of Citroen, Peugeot and Renault in here ASAP. It’s time to pivot away from The Americans.

I have watched the US abuse their trade relationship with Canada since the 1980’s as a avid political junkie.

One Canadian government after another rolled over and played dead when the Americans hit us with unfair tariffs and trade action.

Trudeau and Freeland changed all of that today with one breathtaking press conference. This is the strongest trade action Canada has taken since WWII. But the statement from the PM was the icing on the cake, a blistering attack on Trump’s actions against their nation’s best friend, comrade in arms and neighbor.

How long will this trade war last? Not long in my opinion, because ultimately the American consumer is going to pay as a tsunami of counter-tariffs (blow-back) imposed by Canada, Mexico and the EU work their way into thousands of products sold in the US.

Canadian business, to a limited extent, may have other options dealing with the EU and China. I have little doubt that China will be very interested in developing relationships with EU and Canadian business who may require finished goods or components previously supplied south of the border. This obviously takes time, but the longer the trade war lasts the less reliant we will become on US suppliers in certain affected sectors.

Keep this in mind. This trade war is America vs the world and the US consumer is going to be the big loser. This is what happens when you pick a spoiled rich guy with orange hair to run your country.

OMG, Tony, promise me you’ll take an introductory economics course. Don’t sit at the back of the classroom, pay attention, and ask questions if you don’t understand something! Wow!

—

Depends on what school of economics you study.

The future of economic prosperity may happen in countries that build up locally the full spectrum of value added economy, including manufacturing, based primarily on the most advanced automation – instead of locally available or imported cheap labor.

In those economies lower population is actually an advantage, they can also eliminate the mindless travel of raw materials, energy, value-added end products across the globe multiple times, wasting mind-blowing amount of energy to reach the cheapest labor and the richest consumers.

The most advanced economies of the future might not be based on the highest volume of high cheap labor content products for large number of poor customers globally, but the most automated, most sophisticated custom products for limited local customers.

The biggest shortcoming of globalism as economy is that it is based and evaluated on the assumed unlimited growth of resources, energy, labor, customers.

The demand for growth is why globalism can not exist without eliminating all form of borders on the entire globe, physically, financially, politically, culturally.

Even at the price of constructing to most totalitarian society ever existed.

Trump’s tariffs no matter how flawed has exposed the soft belly of Canada’s limitations in making right investments for the future. In today’s world of high tech, size matters less and less. In fact size is a big disadvantage because large size means slow moving paralysis. This has been demonstrated many times in the corporate world in modern times. Amazon eating Walmart and Targets lunch or Apple and Google eating Microsoft and IBMs lunch. I hope this action by US serves as a wake up call for Canadians to focus on what’s important and getting rid of the loser attitude of sleeping with the elephant analogy of Trudeau Sr. Those days are long gone.
Japan is the only country in this world which got nuked and lost the second world war and eventually woke up to its reality. It kicked US’s butt big time in the 80s and 90s economically before committing debt based suicide on real estate and poor immigration policy from which it has not recovered for the last 20 years. Those who don’t remember history are cursed to repeat it. I hope Canada learns its lesson well for the future generations.

I don’t know which of my posts ‘triggered’ you, snowflake, but I assure you that my pseudonym, a slightly deranged derivative of ‘smartaleck’ is just about perfect for the level of intellectual rigor that I commit to comments made anonymously on a blog.

While the comments you post on this blog may represent the the height of YOUR intellectual exertions, It is not for me. I come here to unwind.

What was the trigger? Was it the debunking of the Globalist economic conspiracy? Was it the Trump – Beeblebrox comparison?

While I agree he has taken us in a misguided direction, it is intellectually dishonest to call him a drama teacher and ignore ten years of experience. I am sure you learned much in the last decade. Demean the policies, not the man. – Garth

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There’s a difference between having ten years of experience and having one year of experience ten times.

The policies are juvenile, naive and impetuous. Consistent with an unseasoned rookie. Not much more to say about it.

It woukd be nice if the burlington bay mordor was gone. Smells gross sometimes when you walk by the lake.

The reality is that its impossible to achieve any type of economic advantage by setting tarifs on a commodity like steel. Specialty steels can be produced in smaller batches.

The main realization for Canada is that the relationship with the US should not be taken for granted and there is no quid pro quo. Canada doesnt need Norad or F-35. Canada would be better off developing a nuclear arsenal, as US is the only natural opponent at thia time and cannot realistically be deterred by anything else.

Canada is one bad blizzard away from becoming Puerto Rico North. It is time to get on the hands and knees and beg the Yanks to come back. Start by apologizing fro the KMI debacle, silience all the environmental loonies of the Wet Coast, and stop Chinese mafia money from etnering the country. That is Day 1. Will be backlater with Day 2 requirements.

“Tariffs mean more jobs and better pay for Americans. Better quality products. I fail to see what’s wrong with that?”

The USA has to maintain a constant outflow of products, which it must sell to other countries, if it wants to keep financially viable.

They have to sell us, and the rest of the world, their stuff.

They have now picked trade fights with most of South East Asia, including the power brokers in that area of the world, the Chinese, all of Europe, Canada, and Mexico.

When they put tariffs on the products of another country, that country will retaliate (unless it is governed by T2, in which case it will hide in its closet, try on various attire, and then go and try to accomplish a socialist goal by wearing an appropriate outfit).

Normally, when your Prime Minister is not a feminist, the result of a country hitting your vital industries with high tariffs, is an immediate retaliation with tariffs in kind. If the government is smart, the tariffs are “politically planned” so that they target products produced in areas where that leader does not have a lot of support anyway, to try to create a ground swell of opposition to the person.

In our case, T2 will likely take another trip to the USA, ensure that the tariffs are gender neutral and that no one has said anything offensive about a designated group, and then come home to report that all is fine and we are safe from any offensive words or actions that might shock someone. He will then dress up as something or other, and take selfies.

But if we did not have that problem, then Canada would slap retaliatory tariffs on targeted US industries. If we were smart, we would now try to forge a trade pact with Mexico, to get all of the goods we need from them, and sell them our stuff, and the USA can go ‘eff itself. Isolate them and bleed them out.

I have written multiple posts detailing the amount of speculation and general craziness I have discovered happening on Mathers Avenue in West Vancouver,and what these guys just did has added to the legend.

Picked up for 2.2 in June 2016 ,these guys decided to chop 56% off their ridiculous ask and bypass the assessment,which comes in at 1.99 and somehow pull 1.7 out of their crevice.

Things are pretty bad on the North Shore ,and I probably have another 4 or 5 cases in this street alone ,but these guys appear to attempting to chum the waters for a bidding frenzy which most likely won’t eventuate.

There has been speculation all across Vancouver,but the amount in Mathers Avenue largely bought at peak in 2016 could only be described as prodigious…

#84 brian1 on 05.31.18 at 8:51 pm
Our brave Canadian veterans gave us those freedoms. The ignorance here is palpable. – Garth
———–
Garth,
Your ignorance of history is palpable.
Canada’s contribution to the war effort in all conflicts.
since WWi are minuscule.
Cannon fodder for the Allied forces, that’s all.

Garth, another spot-on blog, as the Brits would say. Your clear and concise messages are a welcome rebuff to the sludge that masquerades as information these days.
And kudos to your team at Turner Investments – you have a knack for hiring, too.

Might be nice to dream of 50s again but reality is picking global is here to stay, there’s no domestic supply chain for decades. Thinking this is going to reverse in time for the next election is a fantasy to say the least. All electronics in particular is pure China, they have the complete supply chain and manufacturing capability to assemble for 1$ a day. Bubba and Joe the Plumber are not going to magically be assembling your next mobile phone or refrigerator next year or even decades from now.

Canada should immediately grant member country’s of the EU favored status on all issues related to trade, good and services completely, same goes for china, etc.
if stupid in the white house,imposes tariffs on Canadian manufactured vehicles,the idiots next move, we should reciprocate by placing a 2x tarif on any U.S. produced vehicle exported into Canada. the US should be prohibited from providing any goods or services to any federal or provincial goverment agency within Canada.
the western pipe line must be completed along with a eastern one,in addition to strategic refineries to produce finished petroleum products for export to other free trade partners world wide. discount deals on oil and hydro services to clown land should be terminated immediately. its time to grow up we have a free trade agreement with the EU,that represents 750 million potential customers,and can provide all of the goods and services we require, and we can provide the resources they require, same goes with china.
if the horses ass that is running the white house thinks he can go it alone and insult and diss Americas alleys and friends so be it. this country has never lost a war
and if stupid thinks a trade war is a easy win i guess we shall have to educate him, we have been there and done that before.

#59 Timmy
…Prime Minister stupid enough to buy an asset…no one in the private sector wants to buy.

—–
Are you high? That pipeline is the lifeline of their business future. They will, in the national interest, sell it to a Canadian O/G player as quickly as they can negotiate a tax-payer money losing deal. I’m thinking Suncor…or a consortium consisting of SU, CNQ, CVE (in spite of debt).

Still trying to decipher the decorum when insulting politicians. I think whenever I refer to Turdeau it is associated with a policy that I am decrying. So the insult is more to the policy than the man (although it is hard to separate them). I’m sure he’s a very nice man in person and “turd” would be a very inappropriate way to describe him. But the policies…. OMG.

It is true that Trudeau has 10 years of political experience but that and the rest of the resume is pretty weak. Read the Wikipedia post. I mean boxing is in there.

I think he’s an arse. But he’s our arse now I suppose. And if there were an election today, he’d probably win again. There are no Brian Mulroney’s or even Steven Harper’s on the horizon to replace him. The mood in this country has gone distinctly left, and unfortunately that doesn’t usually correct without a severe crises.

I don’t think your idea about removing tariffs on Euro autos would work because if you watch the video of President Trump’s dinner at Davos where he hosted over 50 Euro top executives, including the heads of car manufacturers, you would see that several Euro car execs have already committed to spending billions in the USA building facilities to build and sell their cars there.

One of Canada’s great treasures was its Macintosh apple, which id now almost impossible to find any more in the fall. It’s the extinction of little things like that that are negative harbingers of globalism, imo.

Surely you understand that there is no current protection by the Americans or anyone else against an onslaught of multiple ICBMs with up to 15 independently targeted warheads per missile nor hypersonic missiles flying at mach 10 to mach 20.
Even the Pentagon acknowledged this recently.

If the Russians were determined to take out America, or any other country for that matter, they could do it at any time of their choosing.
Knowing that the earth would never recover and that wind patterns would eventually bring the fallout back home, this is a schoolboy fantasy that they would EVER be the aggressor.

Russia, China and India’s military are defense oriented and therefore land based.
America’s military seeks to project power offensively and therefore requires a 350 ship navy including 13 aircraft carrier groups while Russia and China have only 1 aircraft carrier group each.

Those ships are now easy prey for the new sophisticated, multiple and varied missile systems employed by Russia, China, Iran and others. Strategically, they are obsolete “systems” in a major conflict.

Ever wonder why no US Navy ships are stationed in the Straits of Hormuz anymore ? – where 40 % of the world’s crude oil transits every day.

American global aggressions certainly do affect the “security” of the entire world. Their “protection” makes the world less safe in many instances.

Check the % of GDP that the USA exports (11 %) versus the same metric for Germany (60 %), Japan ( 55 %), Canada (25 %), Mexico, China and many other nations. They are big EXPORTERS – meaning that they NEED to export to maintain viable economies.

The USA could close its borders tomorrow and still operate a viable economy (with some debilitation, but no wide scale collapse). No other major economic power could do so and with so few repercussions.

The flip side of that strength is their sovereign debt, which is owned by those EXPORTERS and finances the USA’s treasury and consumption. Consider it ‘vendor financing’. Their trade deficits are another country’s surplus.

There is a symbiosis in trade which is needed in our modern trade mechanisms. It is not a simple fix.

You are willing to lose middle-class, the cornerstone that created a better society in history for buying more cheap shirts.

You similarly don`t see any potential problem with `all electronics is pure China, they have the complete supply chain and manufacturing capability`.

Not surprising – after all you also happily traded privacy for the convenience of sharing your life online, without a single thought of the potential consequences and how it contributes to the creation of unprecedented totalitarian society.

The people in the Toronto area are too far gone, they need this crash to remind them that home prices should be related to your income or else they are not affordable in the long-run.

I tried showing people in Toronto that homes are cheaper outside of the GTA, many think it’s because there’s something wrong with the home, not updated to the crap they see on HGTV or because Toronto is a world-class city where all immigrants move to and all foreign buyers want to invest in.

They will see the truth for themselves once mortgage rates start to rise again, the housing market stalls further and their interest-only HELOC payments are not enough to cover all of the debt they are putting on their credit lines in a rising interest rate environment.

GTA better hope new immigrants and millennials don’t find out that southern Ontario has enough space to make all of the affordable single detached homes they want while still protecting the greenbelt and that they do not need to stay in Toronto to have a great life.

US (& global) stocks are going to go up A LOT over the next 5-20 years folks. If history is any guide we could see 15%+ annualized returns. Ignore all of the valuation bears and be open to better than expected outcomes. The world is getting better, not worse.

Let us assume that Obama saved us from a depression,
which I believe he did, that would not make Obama the next president but either Hillary or Trump. I saw the double standard of the main stream media for myself and chose Trump.

So anyway, I’ve decided to retire, at least for now. The scariness of the TN Visa situation being a small part of it. The changes to the small corporation treatment being larger. My tax rate has effectively doubled and I don’t need the money that bad and I have a motorcycle.
——————————————————————

@#140 Dolce Vita
“Tariffed products into the US amount to (and I quote Wilbur Ross):
“…a fraction of 1%”
of their GDP and conveniently glossed over by the Lefty MSM.”
+++++

And there is the truth.
Canada is insignificant to the US in a trade war.
A few things may hurt them but in the grand scheme of things…..nada.
Trudeau can huff, bluster and put his “serious face” on all he wants but in the long run…..do very little.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the Fall in Mid term elections in the US as well as what happens to the US economy over the next few years of tariff wars leading up to another US Presidential election.
One wonders how many Allies will go to bat for the US in an actual war these days with Trump at the helm.
Tariffs, broken trade deals, sanctions at the drop of a hat, insults, promises not kept, the list goes on.
Trumps’ endeavour to Make America Hated Again seems to be working.

The US is hostile to Canada because we have the Zoolander PM in power. He’s a joke of a PM and the worst I’ve ever seen. I’d rather have Trump who wants to protect his citizens and grow his country. He doesn’t want the US to become a Germany or a UK. As a woman, I agree with this.

The day NAFTA is negotiated on a politically neutral platform sans criticism of counter-party social behaviour (that’s another forum altogether), the TFSA restored to motivating contribution levels and Mr. Dressup behaves like a dignified statesman, er states person, is the day I agree with your statement.

The world pays attention to every single word that comes out of their governing elite’s mouths and T2’s statement that “the budget will balance itself” didn’t impress anyone – it certainly doesn’t reflect 10 WHOLE years of government experience.

Few days ago you mentioned gov. run projects ended up in mismanagement, delayed deadlines and cost overruns. I was about to share something with you that day what happened to me, just never get around to do.

I was making something for my son few months back, told wife 50cad tops,went to HD so got me some pegboard, hangers, lumber and glue, what I was surprised that for something simple bill was 4$ shorter of national debt, but that was ok one time deal.

Got home couldn’t find c-clamps, screws and ol’ milwaukee batteries wouldn’t recharge. Second trip to HD bill was approximately 2x bigger than 1st one. But that was ok new cordless drill was brand new and shiny, plus replacement batteries for old one would take a few weeks to get it from eBay.
Anyway to cut long boring story, in order to meet deadline I have to swallow huge cost increase or let 30 min project be long 3weeks. Did I ever found my self with predicament on my hands, do I disappointed my son or make wife mad…

And this is for you if you have some time to spare. Smarter people than I talke about same problem, missed dendylions and chronic cost overruns.

But what’s interesting everything boils down to strategic misinterpretation, and over optimistic pricing bias.

“The USA could close its borders tomorrow and still operate a viable economy”

No country can close its borders and keep its economy viable. As soon as the USA did that, they would be bankrupt. That is not even worth discussing. They produce all over the world, their large companies are multinational, they sell to everyone. Just consider their internet content sales alone, Netflix, Google, Facebook, the list goes on. Banking, finance, agriculture, manufacturing. Their economy would be toast a day after they closed down the borders.

The USA is hopelessly interconnected with the rest of the world, and any attempt by Trump to create a self sufficient, “Juche” type state with no imports or exports, is going to result in economic catastrophe.

#140 Dolce Vita – This was the Liberal Government attempting to target certain states which had me laughing. Its like taking a toy gun to shoot down a jet fighter, and its nothing more than a dog and pony show. Some of these products are manufactured in Mexico, and elsewhere for example as buy them all the time.

“Trudeau has a decade of government experience. The drama teacher thing is lame. – Garth”
– LOL!!! That’s exactly the reason he is brain dead. There is just too much government, it has certain implications for Canada. BTW drama teacher training is perfect background for a carreer in government, so it is not lame.

wow. garth is officially experiencing Trump Derangement Syndrome. What part of “America First” did you not understand? There is an obvious loophole in NAFTA which allows automotive parts manufactured in China to be exported to Canada and Mexico. Trump is trying to get the latter countries to buy parts produced in North America. Australia, Brazil, and South Korea have all signed new trade agreements with the US, with Japan on the verge of signing one. Why does Canada have to learn the hard way? Which of the two countries is more dependent on the other?? Did you see the unemployment numbers in today’s US job report? Looks like Trump “madness” and “bullying” is working out pretty well for them. These Trump insights of yours haven’t been aging very well, have they.

#116 akashic record on 05.31.18 at 10:50 pm
“… The demand for growth is why globalism cannot exist without eliminating all … borders on the entire globe, physically, financially, politically, culturally. Even at the price of constructing t[he] most totalitarian society [that] ever existed.”

Check the % of GDP that the USA exports (11 %) versus the same metric for Germany (60 %), Japan ( 55 %), Canada (25 %), Mexico, China and many other nations. They are big EXPORTERS – meaning that they NEED to export to maintain viable economies.

The USA could close its borders tomorrow and still operate a viable economy (with some debilitation, but no wide scale collapse). No other major economic power could do so and with so few repercussions.

***************************
That is absolutely correct.

Trump can Wall off the entire U.S. and the U.S. would survive although its economy would suffer. (Just as the earth as a whole exports nothing). Agreed, probably no other country can say the same.

#162 Lisa on 06.01.18 at 9:05 am
How about as a Canadian that he just attacked? – Garth

———————————————-
Sorry Garth, but Canada is becoming a socialist shithole under this idiotic federal government.

The fact that the feds and most of the provinces now think that gender equity, social justice, social licence, and carbon pricing are more important than economic growth, freedom of conscience and personal responsibility.

Canada is now divided by regions (east and west, and now west and west) by class (the rich doctors and entrepreneur class) and by identity. It claims to be country of laws, but will not enforce the law to build important national projects.

Trump may be a buffoon, but his policies are designed to grow the economy, provide good jobs for Americans, and increase the wealth of the country.

The idiots in the federal government’s ideology is to apologize for everything, save the world through idiotic environmental policies, and virtue signal about everything that most people do not give a crap about.

Trump’s policies may hurt Canada, but Canada is hurting itself far more than his policies.

So excuse most of us who think that Canada is imploding by the marxist policies of its leaders, and look longingly at the policies of the Americans that actually do something to improve the lives of its citizens rather than virtue signaling , and implementing policies (killing pipelines, ridiculous carbon taxes) that do nothing to address important issues such as climate change, yet only serve to beggar the Canadian population, while the rest of the world eats our lunch.

US markets didn’t drop that much at all.
Supply Management in Canada is the real issue, get rid of it as we should and NAFTA is back on.

****************************************
Agreed Supply management is indefensible and Canada should have taken the opportunity to toss it (to the benefit of Canadian consumers) in the guise of giving it up for NAFTA.

If open trade is good, then perhaps Canada should go full bore. No tariffs on imports of any kind. Clearly benefits consumers. Let the chips fall where they may.

Any U.S. consumer can buy anything from any other state tariff free. If that works within a large country like the U.S., why not apply to the whole world? Canada can set an example and drop all tariffs to zero.

At the moment, Trump is protecting American companies and consumers from cheap steel and aluminum. Is that a good thing?

Credit where credit is due though. So far the jobs record under Trump is very positive. The trend was there under Obama but the trend continues. Trump rightly gets credit. But stay tuned to see if the trade wars cause damage.

Time to double the army’s size and create new defense agreements.
________

Now THAT – is absolutely hilarious!

More like 1,000X or 10,000X, or 100,000X

If the entire planet combined forces and attacked the US – the US would win decisively, and it would be over in no time.

The USA has VAST – UTTERLY VAST superiority on land, air, and especially sea – 19 carriers (the rest of the world combined has 12, half of those are old junk, none are as well organized and equipped as those of the USA.)

You hate Trump? Great, but let’s not lose sight of reality. The US could take out Canada and Mexico just by making a threat, the rest of the world wouldn’t even get out of their harbours before everything they got is sitting on the bottom.

The US is un-touchable until someone is willing to launch nuclear warhead equipped ICBM’s at them. Even then, while the US might take a hit or two (maybe) – whoever pushed the button first will be turned into glass before they could learn if they even scored a hit.

The sad but true fact is, when it comes to the USA; it’s heads they win, tails you lose – on just about everything.

I’ve been using Turdeau, Moroneau, and Nutely for some time. Occasionally “Environment Barbie” as well. I thought politicians were naturally exposed to some ridicule by nature of their positions? I mean it’s not the worst thing I’ve been called even by my wife.

//////////////////////

No one notices that you’ve used those names because your posts are too long to read.

It’s amusing to see people talking about boycotting American products on websites like facebook and reddit using their iphones and android phones or windows computers. If we cut out every American product in our lives we would be in a world of pain. We need them more than they need us.

I am afraid USA lost this superiority to Russia and China. Russia has weapons that are decades ahead of USA as has been proven somewhat. Naval battle groups mean nothing anymore, as Russia could sink them all with their latest rocket torpedoes that cannot be stopped. Just look at the F35 which is a dog, and even Japan just brought out a new fighter jet that rivals the F35. Let’s not discuss the Russian Satan missile at this time either.

New billion dollar manufacturing plants (Foxconn in WI for example) and billions and billions of repatriated dollars (APPLE for example) are coming back to the USA because of Trumps tax cuts…….And jobs in all sectors are the highest they have been in decades.

Smartalox on 05.31.18 at 6:46 pm
Trump’s Presidency is proof that all globalist trade conspiracy theories are BUNK.

If they weren’t, surely the Globalist conspirators (and their lackies on Wall street) would have ensured that Trump would have had an ‘accidents’ by now, rather than put up with all his capricious fits and the uncertainty that they generate in global markets.

And yet he’s oblivious to the mounting pressure of the world closing around him. This guy has the biggest ego I’ve seen since Zaphod Beeblebrox, emerged from the Total Perspective Vortex. He’s also a Beeblebroxian contender for most shameless abuse of a Presidency as well.

Oh well, I guess that we’d better hope that the recently purchased ‘CanDer Morgan’ pipeline Co. places it’s order for steel pipe while Canadian steel is on sale. Buy Canadian!

______

So you are suggesting that because the President has not been “whacked” it means there are no Globalist Bankers? I think you need to knock off the Tom Clancy novels for a while…….

Too bad for you and people like you Garth that the only nation that does matter (the one that actually got Trump elected via Sheldon Adelson’s funding machine) just got an ALL OK to bomb Syria to their hearts content.

Your way of thinking is at an end. The new world is one of America and Israel, going it alone. No amount of pornstar payoffs will remove the man who will ensure Israels survival for the next millennium.

The date was April 10, 2014 when a Russian fighter jet decided to have some fun with the most sophisticated ship in the US Navy. It shut down all its defence systems and practiced a few bombing runs for sport with the crew speechless on deck.

Trump can Wall off the entire U.S. and the U.S. would survive although its economy would suffer. (Just as the earth as a whole exports nothing). Agreed, probably no other country can say the same.
______

The US’s Achilles heel has traditionally been (in our lifetimes) it’s reliance on foreign oil. That’s all healed up now.

They really do seem to have all bases covered.

On top of that, if the US closed their borders, and pulled all their international military back home (like Trump said he would), a giant chunk of the balance of the world would reopen old grudges/beefs and bomb themselves back into the stone age.

A lot of folks will not admit just how much international stability is maintained by the USA, and paid for by the USA taxpayer.

New billion dollar manufacturing plants (Foxconn in WI for example) and billions and billions of repatriated dollars (APPLE for example) are coming back to the USA because of Trumps tax cuts…….And jobs in all sectors are the highest they have been in decades.
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We have been anticipating Donald Trumps wackiness for the last year and already had a contingency plan in place with all of our dear American suppliers.
Our CEO is adamant about not pandering to American interests at our expense the way Trump waffles on every thing that comes out of his little mouth.

Fact we cancelled an expected deal with a large American Servo motor company for over $8.25 Million yesterday. Oh the timing was perfect! We had a secondary supplier in Europe with global presence in North America and made a deal with them. We are saving with the 25% tariffs still 2.75% with the added shipping and the deal has been signed in Canadian funds. The contract has a clause to maintain the renewal for another year in Canadian funds.
Yesterday our phones were ringing off the wall and we even had a Skype with our American supplier as he was trying to save the deal. His last words were “how can we save this deal”. My CEO said talk to your president. You could see the frustration in his face. It is really too bad as we all had existing relationships with these guys. He said this will affect their staff and they may loose a shift. We did not close the door on the Americans but rather said when the next contract comes up we will be in touch.

The reason the ‘gender equality’ piece in NAFTA is not going to ‘go over well’ is because it can’t really ‘go over’ in the first place – the gender equality piece is specific to parental leave for women – in the US its a deplorable few weeks versus Canada which is a year. Canada can’t make the US enforce the same parental leave for its women. That is why it is just ‘a conversation’ rather than a demand. But better a conversation than silence.

Parental leave is a human resource issue and an economic issue, nonetheless, and there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a conversation about it, or a mention of it in NAFTA, particularly when it concerns one of the most powerful countries in the world that still cannot seem to provide 50% of the tax-paying population with reasonable parental leave allowances. Any Canadian who suddenly learns that US doesn’t have a full year of parental leave is frankly astounded.

Maybe instead of outlawing abortions, the Cons in the US congress should focus on providing adequate support and care for all those babies that make it to full-term, and their mothers. You’re fostering the next generation of workers – shouldn’t you be economically supporting their success instead of hampering it?

Advancement of women in the workforce depends on the type of support that is provided to mothers with children. Unconscious biases towards women who have children affect their support and advancement at work, and stems from the fact that people don’t want to accommodate this part of the population when they’re talking about labor and economics. It’s a conversation that needs to be had, particularly when it concerns potentially 50% of the population.

So yes, have the conversation, include conversations on gender in the workforce in NAFTA. It’s about time. Even if we’re not forcing the US to step up to our standards.

US markets didn’t drop that much at all.
Supply Management in Canada is the real issue, get rid of it as we should and NAFTA is back on.

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Agreed Supply management is indefensible and Canada should have taken the opportunity to toss it (to the benefit of Canadian consumers) in the guise of giving it up for NAFTA.

If open trade is good, then perhaps Canada should go full bore. No tariffs on imports of any kind. Clearly benefits consumers. Let the chips fall where they may.

Any U.S. consumer can buy anything from any other state tariff free. If that works within a large country like the U.S., why not apply to the whole world? Canada can set an example and drop all tariffs to zero.

At the moment, Trump is protecting American companies and consumers from cheap steel and aluminum. Is that a good thing?

Credit where credit is due though. So far the jobs record under Trump is very positive. The trend was there under Obama but the trend continues. Trump rightly gets credit. But stay tuned to see if the trade wars cause damage.
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Look up Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act. It did not work.

#181 some guy
No less amusing is you claiming credit for products whose roots are far from American.
Android is based on Linux named after Linus Torvalds. Linus wrote the OS while he was a student in Amsterdam.
Yes. America still does a great job of claiming credit for other people’s work.
Apple iPhone is made with ARM processors which were invented in the UK. Apple IOS is made based on BSD which is an Open source software with contributions from world over.
Computers were invented by Charles Babbage. Alan Turing the father of computer science is British.
USA… USA… USA… Ha Ha Ha

New billion dollar manufacturing plants (Foxconn in WI for example) and billions and billions of repatriated dollars (APPLE for example) are coming back to the USA because of Trumps tax cuts…….And jobs in all sectors are the highest they have been in decades.
__________________________________________
We have been anticipating Donald Trumps wackiness for the last year and already had a contingency plan in place with all of our dear American suppliers.
Our CEO is adamant about not pandering to American interests at our expense the way Trump waffles on every thing that comes out of his little mouth.

Fact we cancelled an expected deal with a large American Servo motor company for over $8.25 Million yesterday. Oh the timing was perfect! We had a secondary supplier in Europe with global presence in North America and made a deal with them. We are saving with the 25% tariffs still 2.75% with the added shipping and the deal has been signed in Canadian funds. The contract has a clause to maintain the renewal for another year in Canadian funds.
Yesterday our phones were ringing off the wall and we even had a Skype with our American supplier as he was trying to save the deal. His last words were “how can we save this deal”. My CEO said talk to your president. You could see the frustration in his face. It is really too bad as we all had existing relationships with these guys. He said this will affect their staff and they may loose a shift. We did not close the door on the Americans but rather said when the next contract comes up we will be in touch.

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Thank you for the cherry picked example of fallout. Millions of other repatriated factory workers do not care……

Sorry Garth, but Canada is becoming a socialist shithole under this idiotic federal government…
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Excellent.

What happens when Trump slaps 25% on the auto industry? Every single manufacturer here has plants in the US, and likely all of them already had pre-existing plans to bail out of Ontario in due time too. They WILL NOT be competitive under these conditions, and if the tariff sticks – they’re gone – all of them.

Trump will take all the blame of course, – but all those high paid steel and auto sector workers who just got axed – will they be pouting and pointing, or getting smarter? Will they still be backing up Trudeau’s push for idiotic feminism/gender/sjw bullshit issues with our major trading partners? Will they start to realize that a great paying job with benefits and a pension is actually hard to come by these days?

IMHO – we’re either going to start getting smarter very soon, or an entire working generation will need to pass struggling to make ends meet while their standard of living sinks before any of these birdbrains gets a clue.

In my opinion have the best ball point pen. Its a fine point made by BIC called the classic that can be bought by the box or a two pack. I am looking at the package now, and what does it say? Made in Mexico.

Instead of going south of the border, why not spend your money in Canada instead. Explore the beauty of small town Ontario with a road trip to see the sites. Better yet visit Montreal or Quebec City for a change of culture, museums, and fine dining. Then there is the Atlantic Provinces with so much to see and do you might never want to come back. The same goes for those who live out west; lets make Canada great again.

It’s been reported that our refusal to agree to a “sunset clause” is the official reason for these tariffs.

IMHO, the real reason is to distract from his administration’s troubles and as a gimme to his base.

It also has an added benefits of alienating US allies and major business partners, which benefits Russia. Deripaska, the oligarch Manafort was laundering money for, is called the Aluminium King. Since the EU isn’t going to be buying US aluminium anymore, he expands his market.

The Russians got a major lucky break in the Trump election, everything is going to plan as detailed in the “Foundations of Geopolitics”. Read the book, it’s eerie.

We played ourselves HARD. We where unprepared for a propaganda war via social media and we got shot in the foot.

its all about wages, currency, opportunity, and taxes and under all those scenario’s the USA is the only country.
Canada doesnt even compare.
wages, 3.8% unemployment rate, wages are up, the currency is in the mighty greenback, everyone knows our currency will be down to 70 cents
in terms of opportunity, much more access to credit for business and opportunities, americans buy more, trade more, much more business and trade oriented.
Canadians are generally smart, educated, man do they think about stuff, shop around etc, Americans say ‘hey, i’ll take it”
and in terms of taxes, lower across the board, corporate, sales and personal taxes.
in terms of personal with mortage interest deductible, no state taxes in Florida, taxes are really low in Florida.
if the NDP come to power and the marginal tax in Ontario does go to 55% above $220K canadian, which is only $150K USD a year, man why would anyone even think about buying,setting up, working etc in Ontario.
Immigrants love this, free education, free dental, free med’s, clean water, subsidized housing, man Ontario is great. Unless of course you want to do something with your life.

#200 A Yank In BC – There are dozens of videos showing it all. In fact, from April 10,11,12. It started out with one Russian jet; then two; and even a helicopter flying around the ship day and night. I saw the later military report from the Pentagon, but won’t detail what it stated to hurt your feelings. They came about 100 feet away, as the Russians loved a good party.

The US could ‘wall’ themselves off and stop importing? LMFAO, good one, I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in my life. The US is utterly dependant on imports. Walk into a Wal-Mart, or even into a low-class grocery store like Dollar General, and nearly everything on the shelves is imported in some form or another. Even a lot of food is imported, despite the US ordinarily being thought of as a heavy food producer.

In the long term, imports need to be repaid with exports. No country can forever be a net exporter without its currency appreciating to such an extent that it becomes a net importer over time. There is no such thing as an “export-dependant” economy — an economy that is a chronic net exporter, can reform itself and become a net importer or be trade neutral. A chronically importing country with vastly diminished productive capacity, such as the United States, faces an extreme uphill battle in a hypothetical “trade war” to rebuild its productive capacity. Especially in light of the high probability of such inducing global deflation as more goods would be hypothetically competing for reduced levels of global demand.

The TSX’s P/E’s are low, not because Canada isn’t a highly efficient economy that has great prospects for increases to its standard of living. But rather as a market signal that no more investment is needed in its export-related sectors. The Canadian dollar’s value will soon follow, to further signal such, by rising significantly. Instead of doubling down on the O&G sector in the early 2010s, Canadian policy should have been, in hindsight, to diversify into other sectors such as technology, utilizing the vast pools of under-utilized and highly educated Canadian talent in the area. Instead, more O&G production expansion was encouraged, as well as malinvestment into excess housing capacity which brought us the 2013 pan-Canadian peak of RE.

Incredibly, Trump’s White House says erecting trade barriers to its North American allies (to block stuff the US also produces) is a ‘national security’ issue. It’s not, of course. This is designed to blow up NAFTA – which now has a zero chance of being ratified in 2018 – and plays to the alt right Republican base of knuckle-draggers who think protectionism will bring back 1966. That’s not going to happen, either. Just ask Harley, an iconic American manufacturer that this week punted thousands of workers – in part because of the rising price of imported materials.
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Harley was parked yesterday not only a sad day but rain :(

I am in absolute awe at the genius level of the posters to this blog. The range of knowledge of and experience with economics, geopolitics, human resources, industrial strategy and history is astounding. All of this covers the gamut left to right and a myriad of opinions.

Where on earth have you people acquired such advanced knowledge and expertise? And maybe just as important, what on earth do you do in your day jobs?

Generally, McIntosh apples are storage fruit since, when first picked, they are quite sour and only sweeten when kept aside for awhile. In Ontario at least, we now have the Red Prince variety which is exceptionally crisp, sweet and non-browning. It wasn’t developed here but grows very well here. You should try it.

Time to double the army’s size and create new defense agreements.
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Now THAT – is absolutely hilarious!

More like 1,000X or 10,000X, or 100,000X

If the entire planet combined forces and attacked the US – the US would win decisively, and it would be over in no time.

The USA has VAST – UTTERLY VAST superiority on land, air, and especially sea – 19 carriers (the rest of the world combined has 12, half of those are old junk, none are as well organized and equipped as those of the USA.)

You hate Trump? Great, but let’s not lose sight of reality. The US could take out Canada and Mexico just by making a threat, the rest of the world wouldn’t even get out of their harbours before everything they got is sitting on the bottom.

The US is un-touchable until someone is willing to launch nuclear warhead equipped ICBM’s at them. Even then, while the US might take a hit or two (maybe) – whoever pushed the button first will be turned into glass before they could learn if they even scored a hit.

The sad but true fact is, when it comes to the USA; it’s heads they win, tails you lose – on just about everything.
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Your dead wrong the USA doesn’t get heads. By the time anybody hits the button the others are already launching. It doesn’t matter when incoming ICBM’s are lobbed your way you hit the button to launch back and its all over anyway. Peak speed for an ICBM is in the ballpark of 6-7km/s (any faster and the payload would go orbital), and it takes about 10 minutes to accelerate to that speed.
New York to Moscow is 7500km, at 6.5km/s is ~20 minutes. Add in the acceleration time and you’re looking at about 30 minutes total.
London to Moscow is 2500km; most of the flight time there would be accelerating on ascent and decelerating in re-entry rather than coasting 15 minutes is about right for that target. I think the major difficulty would be early launch detection and target estimation, then getting the information to people (ideally without causing a countrywide panic). If you have to spend the first, say, 1/3 of the ICBM flight regimen just to figure out where it might be headed, that is 5-10 minutes that you just lost. Then at the very least, someone or something has to push the proverbial button to get the message out to people to take cover, and you have to consider that not everyone will be monitoring whatever channel you use. It adds up then we are all glass.
We have studied the Russian and Chinese politics in university and they both have a scorched earth policy.http://www.nucleardarkness.org/warconsequences/catastrophicclimaticconsequences/

RE ”Those people who come here to praise the American leader as a visionary, iconoclast and an everyman propelled by common sense and courage are backing a myopic bully. No wonder he likes Putin and Kim, hates a free and inquisitive media and can’t keep employees. The danger he now poses to global growth – just recently struggling back from its knees – is palpable. Ironically, he’s not helping America either by whacking Canada.”

i can’t agree more, Garth..so well put…this overgrown orange oompa loompa and his deplorable followers makes all us more rational folks just cringe…we’ll look back at this ugly eyesore in history with both astonishment and shame….’god bless the USA: the greatest country in the world!’…LOL! not with that dufus behind the wheel.

U.S. job growth accelerated in May and the unemployment rate dropped to an 18-year low of 3.8 per cent, pointing to rapidly tightening labour market conditions, which could stir concerns about inflation.

The closely watched employment report released by the Labor Department on Friday also showed wages rising solidly, cementing expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this month and boosting the probability of two more hikes later in the year. It renewed fears about the economy overheating.

Seeing people in Canada defending Trump wants me want to cry (yes I am a grown man). He is doing so many bad things, and yet….
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Then pass by all Smoking Man comments. He is full frontal hard on loonie for Donald J Trump. He is a wannbe American, who is actually a Canadian that is living in Socal for now.

Trumps real impact on America will be felt in the next two decades. Like Tom Friedman says, when you jump off a hundred storey building, for the first 99, it feels like you are flying..
When all is done, America will be friendless, pathetic little nation shunned by all. No one in their sane minds will want to go to US for investing/studying/research because he will gut American trade/venture capital, Universities and Institutions by his actions. His real motto is not Make America Great Again, It is Make California/New York into Kentucky/Indiana/Oklahoma (pick your favourite Southern s*hole State)

I cannot understand why they haven’t kicked out the F35, to buy some new fighter jets. Todays latest report on that turkey was from a foreign country. They asked the manufacturer in the USA about replacement parts. The replied stated its complex, but good to go in a couple of years or so.

Thank you for the info. I will certainly give the Red Prince apples a try, because my quest to find an apple to fill the Macintosh void is neverending.

Last fall, to my great disappointment, I bought some unripe Macs and they never ripened. :-(

It is the combination of the crispiness, tartness and sweetness that I love about Macs. Every other apple I’ve tried is either oversweet or doesn’t share the delicate Mac texture, but are grainy or other issues.

Other apples that I eat from time to time, not often, are a Golden Delicious or a Granny Smith.

All due respect but you are wrong that Canada has not directly targeted US goods. Inflatable boats? Zodiac in a heavily Republican SC county and Canadian competitor Stryker Boats in BC. Felt tip pens? Manufactured for export in a heavily Republican Georgia County. Sleeping bags? Manufactured for Canadian export in a battleground county with an embattled Republican incumbent. The list goes on and on like that.

What’s wrong with Putin ? He’s the most responsible leader seen in a very long time…
You might disagree… but it doesn’t really matter what you think…it matters what the people that support him think.
…and Kim-baby=CHINA…so trumpy plays a bigger game than CNN lets you believe. He screwed up the Iran thinghy and the Jerusalem thinghy… but hey.. the man is under pressure. He (falsely) thinks that MAGA has any chances if he appeases certain …sensibilities (smile).
West must relearn to MAKE things…not ASSEMBLE things. Europeans will fall in line and T2 will buy a cowboy hat.
It’s so cool to see that the so called westerners do not understand one simple thing: when the “big guy” says jump, you either go to war….or you ask “how high”
Geo-strategy is the name of the game. Human rights is for the suckers.

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The views expressed are those of the author, Garth Turner, a Raymond James Financial Advisor, and not necessarily those of Raymond James Ltd. It is provided as a general source of information only and should not be considered to be personal investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell securities. Investors considering any investment should consult with their Investment Advisor to ensure that it is suitable for the investor's circumstances and risk tolerance before making any investment decision. The information contained in this blog was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, however, we cannot represent that it is accurate or complete. Raymond James Ltd. is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.